ThinkTank is a biennial event that includes facilitated discussions and intensive workshop forums that are designed to improve teaching at the college level. We bring together emerging educators, master educators, and administrators from around the country to expand the theory and improve the practice of teaching art in the 21st century.

​My life experiences in Italy and the USA, horrible and beautiful as they
might be, influence and fuel my practice. I explore ways of making new
spaces that detach from the realities in which we live. These
alternative spaces attempt to start a conversation about human emotions
and experiences. After moving to the USA from a rural farm in Italy, I
realized the important role that physical labor plays in my creative
process. Physical labor is often evident through use of multiples in the
work. This use of multiples liberates and infuses energy into the
spaces and environments I create.

Sculptor and installation artist, Carrie Mae Smith was just awarded a competitive exhibition with “Artship Olympia” in Philadelphia, PA. You can see her work from June 25th to September 25th, 2016. This summer Philadelphia Sculptors in collaboration with the Independence Seaport Museum will launch “Artship Olympia,” an exhibition of site specific installations on the historic Cruiser Olympia, moored in the boat basin at Penn’s Landing. Artists will creatively reinterpret Olympia, giving voice and vision to its history, stories, and culture. Artworks will be bold, subtle, loud, calming, invigorating, and disruptive. What they won’t be is predictable. Visitors will have access to the exhibition during Olympia’s normal visiting hours with additional special events to be scheduled.

Carrie states, "My proposal for the Artship Olympia is to highlight the historically overlooked, yet vital aspect of the lives of the sailors— their diet.” For more information on Carrie Mae Smith visit http://www.carriemaesmith.com/.

​Hackett earned his MFA in Painting from the LeRoy E. Hoffberger School of Painting at Maryland Institute College of Art. His residencies include: The League Residency at VYT, NY as recipient of the Ruth Katzman Scholarship, Contemporary Artists Center, NY and Vermont Studio Center, where he was the recipient of the Civil Society Institute Fellowship. Hackett will attend A.I.R. Studio, Paducah, KY and will be visiting critic at Saint Mary's College, MD in 2017.

Hackett's numerous honors and awards include Best in Show at the 2014 Bethesda Painting Awards Exhibition, making him the youngest winner in the contest's history. His work has been featured and written about in the Washington Post and included in the Huffington Post's "Ten Memorable Paintings of 2014." Additionally, his work is featured in the African American Museum and Library’s STQRY collection in Oakland, CA. Hackett’s work gained international recognition as part of Dave Bown Projects 11th Semiannual Competition.

Hackett’s work is notably supported and collected by Ethan Cohen New York, Wangechi Mutu and University of Delaware’s Museum of African American Art. Hackett has exhibited work in Maryland, Delaware, Massachusetts, Miami Art Fair, Washington, D.C. and New York.

Things have been great in Portland. I loved my bosses, my partner, our team, our clients and my home. And as someone who has been a creative in advertising for a pretty long time, that feeling of contentment made me nervous and I knew it was time for a change. I am in awe of the NY office’s talent, their client roster and their work. I’m assuming this promotion is a clerical error, but I’m just going to go with it.​​

Additional Honors & Awards

Grand Prix Cannes Integrated Lion, Bronze Cannes Film Lions, Cannes Film Merit, One Show Interactive Integrated Campaign Gold, One Show Integrated Campaign Gold, Art Director’s Club Integrated Campaign Merit, AICP Next Integrated Campaign, Clios Content and Contact Gold, D&AD Integrated Campaign Yellow Pencil, Silver Cannes Cyber Lion, Bronze Titanium Lion, Gold Effie, One Show Interactive Bronze, One Show Bronze, One Show Merits, Adweek Best Spots, London International Awards Bronze, Creativity Picks of the Day, AICP Best Agency Art Direction (I was a CW/AD at the time) and Time Magazine Top 10 commercials 2007.

​Phillip Scarpone received his MFA with distinction from The University of Georgia, Lamar Dodd School of Art and BFA from the University of Delaware. He has exhibited throughout the United States including Washington, DC; New York, NY; Austin, TX; Philadelphia, PA; Atlanta, GA; Richmond, VA; Jacksonville, FL; Fort Collins, CO; St.Louis, MO and Baltimore, MD.

He is a recipient of an NEA Established Professional Fellowship in Sculpture through the Delaware Division of the Arts, in 2013 was selected for the Miami University Young Sculptors Competition juried by John Hatfield, Director of Socrates Sculpture Park and in 2014 was a finalist for the Dave Bown Projects 9th International Competition. Phillip is currently represented by Serpahin Gallery (Philadelphia, PA) and adjunct faculty at The University of the Arts (Philadelphia,PA).​

​Susa Cortez was born in 1989 in La Loma a rural town of Moroleon, Guanajuato,Mexico. She migrated with her family to Delaware in 2002. She works in a diverse range of mediums, including installations and actions.​

​Her work has been written and/or featured in San Francisco Magazine and Feminine Moments: Queer Feminist Art Worldwide. Additionally, her work has been showcase is venues such as Yerba Buena Center for The Arts, The Queens Museum, Syracuse University, Galeria de la Raza among others.

Currently, Susa is an artist and educator living and working is San Francisco, CA. She is the Outreach & Programs Assistant at Root Division, an art nonprofit organization serving artists in the Bay Area. She is also the cofounder of Aguas Migrantes, a collective that created an Art Summer Residency Program in Guanajuato, Mexico.​